In recent years, the debate about the utilization of research studies that have been used to inform educational practice has been steadily growing. This debate is primarily the result of frustration; despite the investment of billions of dollars, learner outcomes have not significantly improved. One possible explanation is that most education…

The report describes research strategies to explore the relationship between literacy and employment and to incorporate the influence of job skills with California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) students at Cabrillo College (California). The overall design tests the literacy and job skills of study participants before and…

The Center for Education of the National Research Council (NRC) has undertaken a series of activities to address issues related to the quality of scientific education research. In 2002, the NRC released "Scientific Research in Education" (National Research Council, 2002), a report designed to articulate the nature of scientific education research…

This text provides a solid introduction to the foundations of research methods, with the goal of enabling students and professionals in the field of applied linguistics to become not just "casual" consumers of research who passively read bits and pieces of a research article, but "discerning" consumers able to effectively use published research…

Articulates a fundamental rationale for the practice of qualitative research in music education. Argues that knowledge and experience are by definition subjective and constructed, thereby validating research methodologies that incorporate and acknowledge these realities. Identifies eight "processes" that offer productive research opportunities.…

Explores what focus groups are, how they have been utilized by researchers, and some of the practical and theoretical implications for incorporating focus groups in the design of educational research. Includes verbatim transcripts from interviews and specific examples of various focus groups. (MJP)

Includes four articles that provide librarians with basic pointers on writing and publishing. Highlights include generating ideas; journal articles; collaboration possibilities; potential publication sources; copyright concerns; citations; statistical design; peer review; relevance; the library science market; pricing; publishers; and book…

Argues that research with ethnic minority and subcultural groups is often stymied by measures developed on samples of European Americans. Offers recommendations to help researchers create measures that are sensitive to both the culture and the communities of research participants. Further presents steps used to create measures that are culturally…

Describes plans for an investigation of gopher protocol use for browsing and searching for information available via the Internet. Use of classification schemes based on traditional library models will be compared to the use of an existing gopher. Research questions, literature on related issues, construction of the classification schemes, and the…

Contends that the high quality of the probability sampling used by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is due, in large part, to procedures developed by IEA's first statistical consultant, Gilbert Peaker. Concludes that the Peaker process is a first-class sample design. (CFR)

The author describes potential evaluation capacity-building activities in contrast to the specifics of an evaluation design. Her response to the case of the Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Partnership Academy is developed in three parts: (1) an initial framing of the Bunche-Da Vinci situation; (2) what should be done before signing a contract; and (3)…

This manuscript describes how two school administrators, now educational leadership professors, successfully reframed leadership to create change. Bolman and Deal's (1984; 2003) reframing of pedagogy provided the theory for understanding this complex change process and the school administrator's role. As a conceptual framework, reframing theory…

This article describes the use of a schematic model for developing and distributing online surveys. Two empirical studies that developed and implemented online surveys to collect data to measure satisfaction in various aspects of human resource development and adult education exemplify the use of the model to conduct online survey research. The…

Issues and elements of case study research are explored and illustrated with the example of a case study of a kindergarten in a suburb of Tokyo (Japan). Case study research is a type of qualitative research that concentrates on a single unit or entity, with boundaries established by the researcher. The case is an example drawn from a larger class,…

This collection of papers presented at a 1996 conference on children's mental health focuses on research methodology and information systems. Papers have the following titles and authors: (1) "Parental Agreement on Ratings of Child Behavior: Measures of Agreement and Related Factors" (Carol T. Nixon, William E. MacLean); (2) "CAFAS…